Advantages: great to read
Disadvantages: none

...The baked bean Queen written by Rose Impey and illustrated by Sue Porter I had a grea time reading this book to my class last week . The baked bean queen is a picture puffin book published1988, first published in Britain in 1986 by William Hienemann ltd. Now almost all children eat and like baked beans so it will mean something to most of them. This story is narrated by the baked bean queen’s siste . We open the book to see a birthday party 11 children the children look as if they are having fun sprawling across the table blowing the candles out that are on the pizza. The text is. “On my birthday I eat pizza. I love it”. Turn the page and we see dad eating spaghetti his favourite meal, mum eats chicken and rice on her birthday. Here I went into a discussion with the children “what is your favourite... Read review

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Advantages: Great author, interesting premise
Disadvantages: Hard to relate to central character

..., broadly speaking, covers the same events and time period. It is, however, told from the perspective of Bean, a supporting character from the first novel. An interesting premise I felt but exceptionally difficult to carry off well. THE PLOT IN BRIEF The novel starts by detailing the horrific ‘childhood’ of Bean if you can call it that in the Rotterdam slums. He survives barely by eating trash on a good day and nothing for weeks if things are going badly. He is however unnaturally bright and soon latches onto a crew of older kids by offering them a way into the soup kitchen for a regular meal using a bully and killer called Achilles. This section of the book does demonstrate the extreme intelligence of Bean and the development of his ideas on relationships with people. However the shock tactics used to try and grab early reader... Read review

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Advantages: A great read, exciting and fulfilling, grips you till the end
Disadvantages: Can't think of any off hand

...the character of Bean and starts when he was 4 and living on the streets of Rotterdam. This part of the book stresses the horror and hatred of living on the streets and makes you wonder how a boy that small could possibly have survived in those conditions. Bean is a severly undersized child but unnaturally clever for his age due to being genetically modified and not being killed with the rest of the experimental children. Card then introduces the charcter of Sister Carlotta, who seeing Beans abilities picks him up to take to Battle School, in the process leaving the murderer Archilles loose on the streets. So Bean is shipped off to Battle School at the age of 6, 2 years earlier than normal, and put into the command of Graff and Dimak. The story then follows Beans life through Battle SChool and this is probably another point worth explaining. Battle... Read review

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Advantages: A meaty childrens book to get stuck into!
Disadvantages: None that I can think of!

...Hiya guys! Hope your ready for another children's book review as this review is based on another Roald Dahl book called: FANTASTIC MR. FOX A quote from the book itself! "Boggis, Bunce and Bean are just about the nastiest and meanest three farmers you could meet......" and that isn't a joke! Boggis, Bunce and Bean are three very successful farmers. Boggis was a chicken farmer who kept thousands of chickens, Bunce kept duck and geese on his farm and Bean kept turkeys and brewed apple cider, gallons of which he used to drink evey day. "Boggis, Bunce and Bean, One fat, one short and one lean. These horrible crooks, So different in looks, Were none the less equally mean." But something bothered these three farmers, and that was none other than a fox and his family who lived under a large tree, which was sat... Read review

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Advantages: Imaginations run free, humour, language
Disadvantages: wanting more and not going to bed

...I read his books when I was still a small girl in primary school. Now I still keep his collections and have an omnibus.The only regret I have is not bringing my books over. Fret not, cos holidays just started and I FOUND Roald Dahl's treasury in my university's library. I don't think I'll feel shy because I love his books alot. I've learnt english by reading his books as well and now? writing a review on it.lol. The BFG is a friendly giant in the land of giants who does not eat small human beans( human beings). But one day, having no choice, he had to kidsnatch (kidnap) Sophie, who is an orphan from the orphanage. he brought her to his scary world of giants where fat ugly giants always go out at night to countries to find different human beans to eat according to their selection of their food taste. According to this story, human... Read review

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Advantages: An entertaining and humorous introduction to the life of pirates.
Disadvantages: Not for the squeamish.

...This is a book which was bought for a young friend, which I enjoyed reading as well. It is part of a series of Spilling the Beans books which give an often irrelevant but funny account of some of the more interesting characters in history. Accordingly to the publishers it is suitable reading for children during Key Stage 2 (age 7-11) and Key Stage 3 (age 11-14). This seems quite a large age range, but perhaps explains why my 8-year-old friend and I were both entertained by it. The more detailed facts are with the essential ones, but in smaller print, so that younger or less interested readers could skip them. The author Martin Oliver writes fiction and non-fiction books for children. He says that he first became interested in pirates when watching Captain Pugwash cartoons. Somewhat tongue in cheek I feel, he adds that he... Read review

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Advantages: fantastic insight into Italian life
Disadvantages: Your not actually there!

...and visit the town and experience it all for myself - when my little boy is older we will. If you like italy and the Italian way of life than I would suggest this as a good read. but beware you will want to go and visit, if not live there! isabella has also written another book called Bel Vino - I havent read this but reading the synopsis it seems to be exactly the same as Vanilla Beans and Brodo - so its possible that it has been renamed and re released. For me this was a magical read, really giving me an insight into Italian life and the village's ways and determination to remain individual and true to their roots. You can get this book from most book stores, including amazon where you can get one for £3.92 - a bargain!... Read review

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Advantages: Good story, lots of facts
Disadvantages: Not an easy read

...Inspired by a previous Ciao review by plod591 I set out to hunt down a copy of The Sheffield Gang Wars by J.P Bean. As its title suggests this is a story about the gang wars of England's fifth largest city, Sheffield . This is however not a modern story, it is set in the 1920's - nor is it a piece of fiction, it is an actual factual account and all of the stories told here actually happened. The author begins his story by painting a picture of Sheffield seven decades ago (the book was first published back in 1981), describing its streets as "Cobbled courtyards and dimly lit alleys" and its living accommodations as "row upon row of back to back houses: dirty, overcrowded unsanitary hovels where several families might share one outside toilet". This use of strong descriptive text is used throughout the book and as a resident... Read review

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Advantages: Extremely interesting
Disadvantages: None for me.

...This book, by J.P.Bean, is so much better than any fictional crime thriller I have ever read simply because it is a true story. Sheffield in the early 1920's, a city of over half a million people, many unemployed, dirty overcrowded slums that were no more than hovels, with little sanitation and 30 shillings 'relief money' a week to keep a wife and family meant little money left for even a drink of beer. This fact is borne out by the fall in convictions for drunkenness, from 1473 in 1915, to a mere 241 in 1921. It was obviously nothing more than a grim existence for thousand's of the City's inhabitants. For the working classes with no jobs or prospects and very little money, gambling was seen as a vain hope of making a modest return for a very small outlay, a temptation apparently that could not be resisted. Even women... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Comprehensive Guide to Cricket Throughout the Year
Disadvantages: Statistic Heavy for Those Who Don't Like Cricket

...... Read review

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